Everlasting support for students to pursue their passions.
A powerful legacy for Betty and Audrey Lidgett.
Audrey and Betty Lidgett could be described as many things. ‘Tough’, ‘creative’, ‘independent’ and ‘a lot of fun’, but ‘by the book’ was not one of them. Born in the 1920s, both never married or had children, instead forging their own paths and dedicating themselves to country, community and career.
Affectionately known as ‘Aud and Bette’, the sisters were raised and spent their lives living at 37 Brunswick Street, Lower Hutt, even sharing a room until Betty died in 1985; a testament to their close bond. “We were best friends as well as sisters,” Audrey told former Hutt News editor, Simon Edwards, when she eventually moved to Ropata Village in 2007 due to declining illness.
Left: Audrey Lidgett. Right: Betty Lidgett (Hutt Valley High School archives - 1983).
A life dedicated to service
Upon graduating from Hutt Valley High School, both sisters worked locally; Audrey at the YMCA and Betty as a secretary for Lloyd’s Register of Shipping then Lower Hutt City Council. At the beginning of WWII, Betty became a volunteer aid nurse for the Red Cross at Wellington Public Hospital before joining the Women’s Auxiliary Service (known as the Tui’s) in 1940, serving in Cairo, Bari and Rome before moving to London to help New Zealand troops awaiting ships to take them home at the end of the War. Although naturally community-focused, it was this experience that cemented Betty’s care for people’s welfare, says Lidgett Scholarships Trust trustee and family friend, Amanda Cox.
It was upon her return to New Zealand that Betty first embarked on her creative career, setting up a dress-design business before being asked by Mr Millard, Hutt Valley High School’s then principal, to teach dressmaking. What started as a part time position turned into a 35-year tenure at the school, where Betty taught everything from home economics to technical drawing and junior maths, coached tennis and worked as a career adviser to female students.
At a time when the school was predominantly focused on academics, Betty believed in the value of building skills in more creative fields; an attitude which caught on with many other teachers and resulted in the introduction of broader subjects offered at third form level.
A knack for hospitality
Perhaps inherited from their mother, Katherine, Aud and Bette were fantastic hosts. Amanda, and her mother, Nancy (a lifetime friend of both sisters), recall beautifully set tables no matter the day or time, delicious scones fresh from the aga, Aud’s famous chocolate chip biscuit recipe and many post Trentham races bunfights at Brunswick Street. This knack for hospitality translated into Audrey’s professional life, working at Lever Brothers (now Unilever) as a Home Economist for 25 years where she tested formulations and developed recipes under pioneering New Zealand food writer, Tui Flower.
Both were also brilliant networkers, says Nancy. “They knew everybody – it was hard to walk down the street without bumping into one, or twenty people they knew,” she said. When Nancy first met the sisters on a passenger ship from New Zealand to the UK in the 50s, it was day one of the month-long voyage. “I just remember them being surrounded by new friends almost immediately,” she remembers fondly.
Providing opportunities for students to pursue their passions
When Audrey died in 2010, she left a gift in her will to establish a Trust to support Hutt Valley High School students in the Lidgett name. For many years, the Lidgett Scholarships Trust has supported students to pursue fine arts and design in their tertiary studies. “Providing these scholarships means that students could forge their own paths and pursue their passions, like Audrey and Betty did,” says Amanda.
Following changes to the Trust Act and increasing financial pressures, Trustees of the Lidgett Scholarship Trust were encountering more and more challenges with maintaining a sustainable and effective trust model. “It was becoming untenable,” says Trustee and Lidgett family friend, Amanda Cox, “we got to the stage where costs of compliance and administration outweighed anything we were able to give out as scholarships.”
To ensure that Audrey’s vision continued to be honoured, the trustees made the strategic decision to transfer the Trust to Nikau Foundation, establishing The Lidgett Scholarships Fund in early 2023. “Setting up the fund meant that we could benefit from economies of scale and enduring trusteeship – and be assured that sound governance of the Trust would be sustained long into the future,” says Amanda.
“It is an honour to be continuing the important legacy which Audrey and Betty have left us, both for our young people and the wider Hutt community,” says Nikau Foundation Executive Director, Emma Lewis. “The Lidgett Scholarships Fund is the next chapter of the sisters’ wonderful story, and we are delighted to be part of it.”
